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Red 3K Scarlet

Erik J. Barzeski — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:40:55 +0000

I'll take one, please. The 120 FPS mode will be great for shooting golf swings. Much better than my 320 x 240, 60 FPS Canon SD550 (which, for a still camera, has done a great job).

Wonder what the cost will be.

Thanks, John.

BBEdit 9

Erik J. Barzeski — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:21:56 +0000

BBEdit is one of my "buy it immediately so long as the upgrade price doesn't shock me" type of products. It's only after I pay that I get around to looking at the list of features.Which reminds me: where's TextMate 2.0? I mention it only because every time I post something about BBEdit, some TextMate user tells me I should switch. The short answer is this: my brain is wired the BBEdit way, not the TextMate way. It has some nifty features, but in general, I can't get through the first 15 minutes of use. Perhaps if I did, I'd come to like it, but I can't, and 15 minutes is more time than I generally spend in any given file or even using BBEdit at all in a prolonged period of time. I've never found a five-minute project that I was content to spend 45 minutes doing, including the 40 minutes of learning.

LPGA Tour to Golfers: Learn English

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:41:16 +0000

If you watch any sports shows, you'll hear about this: link 1, link 2, link 3.

I support it.

Aperture Sharing with iLife

Erik J. Barzeski — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:34:10 +0000

A few days ago I noticed that Rivet wasn't sharing all of the images in my Aperture library, or even displaying all of the albums with images. I spent a few hours not thinking about the problem, then poked and peeked and looked inside my Aperture Library bundle at the ApertureData.xml file. It was 192 KB.

Then something came up. I put this thought on the back burner for a few days. I rebuilt my Aperture library (command+option at startup). No dice - still 192 KB and still only showing about 50 of the 8600+ images. I checked out the file and only a few images were listed. Mildly tumped and pressed with other things, I put finding a solution off for a few days.Yesterday I had the idea to try Keynote's media browser. It showed the same 50 or so images that Rivet displayed. I sent an email to someone at Apple along with this screenshot:

As often happens, as soon as I hit "send now," a thought occurred to me. Duh, the checkbox says "Share previews with iLife and iWork." I'd disabled previews a long time ago as a means of keeping my library file as small as possible. I immediately went into Aperture, selected the two albums that provided images to Rivet and Keynote, and deleted the previews. The ApertureData.xml file shrunk to 70 KB. I confirmed that my images no longer appeared in Keynote's media browser. Problem solved.

I'm not sure how those two albums got previews, as I'd disabled them long ago. With a new, larger hard drive, and given the added functionality offered by Rivet (and, to a smaller extent, the media browsers in i* apps), I've re-enabled them. They may add 3 GB to my Aperture Library, but it's worth it. Word to the wise, though: don't try to use your computer for other things while Aperture is rebuilding 8600+ previews, mmmmmkay?

iPhone Pic: Less Then

Erik J. Barzeski — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:16:25 +0000

Aside from the occasional instances of horrible grammar, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 is a joy to play. Very well crafted game.

Update: I spotted another typo, but it was on a loading screen (at Cog Hill) and I couldn't snap a pic in time. iPhone "Camera.app" takes too long to launch, as do I from the couch. It was a word like "beautiful" that had a spare "y" at the end.

Gatorade is Just Sugar Water?

Erik J. Barzeski — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:30:52 +0000

I could have sworn old-school Gatorade didn't have a ton of sugar in it, and I was surprised to find that modern Gatorade - including Tiger Woods' "Tiger" version - is basically water, sugar, dye, and a little flavoring. And worse yet, it's not sugar, but HFCS.

Did it change at some point? Or has Gatorade always been sugar-water? Is it still "okay" for you, relatively speaking? And if it's just sugar water, why wouldn't Kool-Aid from the packets (which would at least have actual sugar and not HFCS) be just as good?

Samba de Amigo

Erik J. Barzeski — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:36:15 +0000

Samba de Amigo is coming to the Wii, and I'm excited. I owned two full sets of the maracas when the game existed for the Dreamcast, and Samba de Amigo is one of about four or five games I wish I still had. The game could be instantly played by anyone, was a big hit among the slightly intoxicated people at various parties, and had enough different music to keep you playing.

So, so much fun.

Numbers: One Funny Control

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:32:16 +0000

See the two segmented controls in the screenshot of the Numbers inspector? Right there in the "Page Layout" section? SEe 'em?

Thing is, they're not segmented controls. At least, they don't act like 'em. They look like 'em, but they don't quack like them, so they're not ducks.

Instead of clicking on the left or right side, it doesn't matter which side you click on - they'll toggle.

Great job, Apple.

Fortunately, this isn't the biggest problem in Numbers. I spent ten minutes today trying to figure out the whole border system (I've got it now!), and a good 15 minutes trying to figure out how to force Numbers how NOT to use the names of columns in formulas. Never did get an answer to that one, and every time I'd type the cell coordinates the names would replace the much simpler letter/number pair.

Oh, and once I merged some cells, I was seemingly unable to split them back into the cells they came from. Numbers kept dividing them in half, despite the fact that I'd originally merged three cells into one.

First iPhone App Coming Soon

Erik J. Barzeski — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:34:00 +0000

I won't say what it is, but Brad and I have been working on an iPhone application at the target price of $1.99. It's not Scorecard for the iPhone (that's coming out later), and it's not really much of anything, but we're "testing the waters" of sorts with this app, and for under two bucks, we think it can be fun.

Adopting a Greyhound

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:27:47 +0000

So, we're considering adopting a greyhound. It seems it's the only way to get one, after all. Though part of me loved being "in control" from the get-go (or, well, about nine weeks old anyway) with my former canine pal, part of me is looking forward to not having to get up three times per night to take a very small dog outside to pee and all that. If you consider them a wash, the only downside, then, is not being able to get cute puppy pictures.

Given kiddo's issues with that former canine pal, we're going to be going to some "meets" to make sure she's comfortable with a dog the size of a greyhound. From what Carey and I have read, they're pretty gentle, and you must only watch out for small animals running around outside - as a sight hound, the Greyhound might immediately take flight after said small furry object.

Target date is early next summer, but we'll see. In the meantime, feel free to post any thoughts here.